DevoMan and MiniD, James and Ian Devoglaer. They started at the very back of the pack and passed me in their 27' Cobra as soon as the Thomson Island bridge and they were gone. I saw them again at Seadrift during the award ceremony.

3rd tandem unlimited, 1st parent and child, and 10th place overall in 47:34h. 9 years old Ian is the youngest male finisher at the TWS.

#5234 (Wenonah Voyager) - James Green, 3rd place in solo unlimited last year in 69:33h, and again the 3rd place this year but in 56:15h

solo unlimited class:

My race. This is attempt to reconstruct my race despite of some memory gaps. All times are given at the departure from a given checkpoint. Of course, I was comparing everything to my previous year safari run.

elapsed time (2002 time) | time of the day | milage ... checkpoint

00:00 (00:00)| 09:00 | 0 miles ... Aquarena Springs

111 boats lined up in 19 rows. I was starting from the 2nd row. 60 seconds to the start my heart monitor stopped working - one thing less to worry about. Crowd of boats. Somebody was knocking my stern.

First portage over the Lake Dam on right. A little bit more room for paddling below the dam.

Rio Vista, portage on left. I needed to push away some spectators. When passing low branches below the Rio Vista something bit me in the left shoulder. The shoulder got red, swollen and quite painful for the next half day. No sign of teeth or sting.

Thomson Island, portage over dam to the river. Devo team passed me just before the bridge.

Cumming Dam, lowering the boat along dam support and running around the dam. The river got less crowded below the dam. I reached Westerfield crossing in a little bit more than 1 hour. Connie was there but I didn't notice her.

Old Mill Rapid, Broken Bow Rapid went quite smooth without taking almost any water. Cottonseed Rapid - this year I went into the eddy on the left side, dragged the boat over the wall (it would be nice place to shoot some pictures ...) and run the rest of the rapid on the left.

Martindale Dam - I portaged over the dam, then portaged again over low water Martindale bridge. My knee was still quite painful when walking. I got some fresh water and ice from Connie.

A lot of people were cheering along the river.

03:12 (03:37) | 12:12 | 16.5 miles ... Staples

I arrived to Staples in about 3 hours, a little faster then in the previous year. I portaged on right around the house. I really need to check other options for portaging there. A fresh gallon of water from Connie and I was ready to go.

I like the river below Staples. Fallen trees, a lot of turnings. The problem was that I hadn't had time to scout this part of San Marcos before the race and I was loosing some time on unfamiliar obstacles. I was paddling together with Sister Act boat (four sisters team). They directed me to one or two narrow and unvisible passages around fallen trees.

Fentrees - water/ice from my team captain. It seems that Prairie Lea #1 bridge was beeing rebuilt but as a regular high bridge (both low water Prairie Lea bridges were washout in fall of 2001).

I met Jack Spencer for a short while somewhere before Luling. It was a pleasure to watch him paddling a single blade on a twisty river.

07:15 (08:37) | 16:15 | 38 miles ... Luling

I had my highest position (39th) in the race at the Luling checkpoint. I changed for a single blade paddle for the next 6 miles (perhaps the longest paddling, otherwise I was using my wing paddle). I arrived to Luling dam following the Sister Act. At Luling City park I got a bottle of fresh water and ice.

Son of Ottine rapid. I run it without problems on right. Last year it was my 12 hour point and I had much more fun there in darkness.

Ottine Dam. I had a little chat with a safety lady on the top of the dam. She commented that I was looking good since she saw a smile on my face. However, I had problems to find an intelligent answer to her question why I was doing that what I was doing.

11:30 (14.01) | 20:30 57.5 miles ... Palmetto

I reached the Palmetto State Park still before darkness. The water was slightly higher than during my training run and my boat almost run away when I was climbing the bridge. I changed water jugs, mounted lights, and left Palmetto about 20:30, i.e, more than 2 hours earlier than in 2002.

I portaged the first log jam in darkness, managed to run over the second one and got stucked for 10 minutes or so in the soft log jam below the old iron bridge. It wasn't cleared by boats in front of me as I hoped. My ultralight Zaveral paddle wasn't the best tool to go through that jam but did the job.

The exit at Gonzales Dam appeared to be very muddy and slippery. I am not sure how I managed to climb there but two tandem boats were waiting behind me. I had some difficulty during my scouting run to launch just below the dam with a strong hydraulic current and some logs. Being tired I decided to drag my boat for a long portage. When I was launching the first tandem boat was just paddling downstream. The short portage wasn't that fast after all.

21:35 (23:43) | 06:35 | 82.50 miles ... Gonzales

I arrived to the Gonzales checkpoint quite tired about 3 am. I set up my hammock next to Connie's tent in the upper area and ordered 3 hour break. I was getting cold in wet clothes so I crawled into emergency sleeping bag. I was careful not to leave anything on the ground since I remembered bugs crawling on everything last year. I fell asleep with an armadillo walking under my hammock.

The approaching storm woke me up about 6 am. I managed to get into water just before the storm. The storm was intense with heavy rain, thunders and lightning. A scary experience, but I enjoyed the cooler temperature. Pretty soon I reached the 10 miles marker, and then the log jam cut before the race by Robert Youens 15 miles below Gonzales.

Gonzales to Hochheim was my fastest river segment: 6:55h and 24th time. It seemed that the rest stop at Gonzales was really needed.

28:30 (32:52) | 13:30 | 117.5 miles ... Hochheim

The checkpoint was under the bridge instead of campground as last year. Very uncomfotable. I got only my water jug, paddled further and stopped later on river to mix my drink.

I don't remember anything interesting from that part of the river. Probably, I was too tired to enjoy the river. I took a few minutes nap in a boat. When I was leaving the shore Charlie Stewart passed by. I bet he was thinking that I was going upstream. I paddled with Charlie and James Sutherland till the Cheapside checkpoint.

34:04 (41:10) | 19:04 | 141.5 miles ... Cheapside

There were some logs on the top of the Cuero dam and the portage was a little bit more strenuous than in the previous year.

The Guadelupe river had some fast places below the dam. It was quite exciting (scary) run in the darkness. I reached the Cuero checkpoint together with James between 22:00 and 23:00.

41:33 (45:31) | 02:33 | 156.5 miles ... Cuero

I decided for another 3 hour sleeping stop. I dragged my boat all way uphill on the steep bank and found a place to hang my hammock. Checkpoint noise didn't bothered me. A full moon was shining into my face untill I fell asleep.

About 2:30 I was back on the water. Charlie Stewart already left. It was interesting that except the Nelson/Nelson aluminium boat at Dupont I didn't see any other boat downriver until the finish.

I remembered a nasty sweeper above Thomaston from the two previous races and I recognized that place on the river. However, the river changed and the sweeper wasn't dangerous any more. Soon after that I hit a rapid above Thomaston with some high waves. The water was hot and steaming.

I passed Thomaston just before sunrise and with the first light I reached the Nursery rapids. The river was still steaming and it was very beautiful. Some rock ledges and remnants of an old Spanish dam that was built in the early 1700s, white water and big cypress trees.

I was shooting pictures and even videos during the entire time of my safari paddling. It was a real pitty that I didn't have a camera with me ...

About 8:00 am I met Connie at the Nursery bridge. She was sitting alone there. Somewhere after Nursery when it was getting hotter I had a paddling crisis and some frustration when changing batteries in my lights. However, I recovered and reached Victoria in a good shape.

50:58 (56:44) | 11:58 | 197 miles ... Victoria
I made only a short watering stop at Victoria City Park and continued downriver. I was hit by a series of heavy showers before I reached Victoria highway 175 where team captains were struggling with a slippery mud on a very steep bank.

It was a very long paddle to reach the DuPont boat ramp. There was one boat there: the aluminium #270, Roger and Stephen Nelson.

57:43 (66:51) | 18:43 | 222 miles ... Dupont

I set up my lights and left the checkpoint without a rest hoping to cover as much of the river as possible before darkness. In less than one hour the Nelsons caught me and I was abble to draft on their wake for a longer while. However, they were too fast for me and before it got dark I stayed behind.

The following couple of hours were perhaps the most difficult during the Safari. The warm water surface was covered by a dense fog. The fog layer was only a couple feet tall but very difficult to penetrate by lights. I had to slow down and navigate by looking at tops of trees visible above the fog. I was afraid to hit something covered by fog and capsize in the middle of nowhere. At the same time the scenery was simply beautiful: the river in fog and a full moon above.

62:13 (72:59) | 23:13 | 243 miles ... Salt Water Barier

I didn't stayed very long at the checkpoint and paddled further to Tivoli and then towards the bay using mostly the moon light.

Somewhere before the Traylor cut, it happened. I hit a stump in the middle of the river, I kept my balance, but was stucked there for a while.

The river between the wooden bridge and the bay seemed to be much longer than I remembered from my previous runs during daytime. Finally, I reached the bay. It was really quiet with just a light northern wind. The crossing to the Foster Point went really nice and smooth. Then, I got nervous about fishing boats obviously running in circles. It was not so easy to find the finish among all visible coastal lights. My GPS was really helpful.

66:05(78:20) | 03:05 | 260 miles ... Seadrift

3:05 Seadrift. Finish!

Finally, I got my camera back but was still too tired to do any serious work. Neverless, I caught on video three boats arriving to Seadrift just around noon.

#63, Doug Rhude - a homebuilt Pax 20 kayak at the start and at the finish

After Safari thoughts

My plan for the 2003 Safari was 60 hours of active paddling and 6 hours of resting. Surprizingly, I managed to stick very precisely to this plan finishing in 66:05 hours. We reduced a number of watering points in comparison with the previous year and tried to minimize my time spend at checkpoints. Our paddler-TC cooperation worked pretty well this year in my opinion but we will have to wait for the Connie's story to see the different perspective.

Two 3-hour sleeping stops gave me plenty of rest and I did't have any halucinations during the race. It may also mean that I didn't push hard enough ... The truth was that I had much better sleep at night before the safari than in the previous year.

The light Hennesey hammock worked pretty well, but I suspect that my 3-hour stops were not the optimal solution. I was't falling asleep immediately and probably I couldn't catch two full REM cycles. Perhaps, three 2-hour stops would work better. I will have to wait the entire year to test the new strategy.

I finished the 2003 safari more than 12 hours faster than in the previous year. The paddling conditions were better this year: higher water levels, quiet bay. Despite of the further position in the solo unlimited class (11th vs 6th), I finished closer to the top solo paddlers: 136% of winning time in 2003 and 152% of winning time in 2002. However, some other solo paddlers made much better improvements from the last year than me.

Before my first safari in 2002 I was asking about advice on using wing paddles for long distance paddling. Although some racers like Erin or Devo were very happy with their wings, the majority of comments were advising against wing paddles for the safari (too much stress on shoulders, not significant gain in efficiency for a wide safari boat). So, I paddled 50% of my 2002 safari with a light Epic Wayfarer kayak paddle and 50% with an ultralight single blade Zaveral.

However, I speculated that a wing paddle could improve my paddling efficiency since it would enforce a better paddling technique. In April 2003 I bought Quickblade proton paddle and started my safari training with it including some intense upstream paddling on my local rivers. After a few weeks I didn't want to return back to my regular kayak paddle. I used my the wing paddle for about 95% of time during this year safari. No problems with shoulders! I was more than happy concerning my recent shoulder surgery.

Bacteria revenge. I paddled the entire race with an open wound on my knee hitting it occassionally during portages. I was treating it with neosporin but was worrying about possible infection. Nothing happened.